Pages

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Story Time . . . RESURRECTION IN MAY by Lisa Samson

Claudius lives a quiet life on his Kentucky farm. Not much ever changes in his life, and he's okay with that. When a man gets to be in his seventies, well . . . he doesn't need to seek out change. But somehow, when a pretty little blonde crawls in front of his car and he stops to help her, he's okay with the necessary change to his schedule too. In some ways May, who just graduated from college to pursue journalism, is as unlike him as a creature can be. But in other ways, they're more alike than he can explain. She has loving parents, and he's a crusty old bachelor, but it doesn't take but a couple hours for him to think she's the daughter he never realized he needed.

But after a summer on the farm, May's headed for Rwanda. Not as a missionary, mind you, but just to help out a priest in a little village. She just wants to do her part, you know? And since the job she was hoping for fell through, she doesn't have much else to do. And Rwanda . . . who'd have thought a third-world country could enrich her so? The people become family, and Father Isaac helps her see that God still loves her, and Jesus matters.

Until war breaks out.

Oh. My. Goodness. What starts as a really nice, touching story gets churned up into a cauldron of humanity's darkest instincts when May finds herself in the middle of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in the 90s. What she goes through is just beyond reckoning--that it changes her goes without saying. But the how . . .

Had someone told me this book was about an old farmer, a young woman without direction, an African priest, and a death-row convict (I know, I haven't mentioned him yet--consider this your mention, LOL), I would have scratched my head and gone "Huh?" Although if you told me it was by Lisa Samson, I would have added an "Ohhhhhhhhh. Lemme at it." And I would have been right.

This book is good all the way through. Great as you dig into the meat of it. And excels into truly amazing in the latter part of the story, when said death-row convict enters the scene. Resurrection in May is way more than a look into the heart of a woman. It's way more than a story of redemption and renewal. It's a book about the awesome power of a God who brings the dead back to life every day, every year. Sometimes we see it in the blossom of a flower killed by frost a few months earlier . . . and sometimes we see it in a heart unfolding in the sun after life has frozen it to the core.

Humanity is capable of so many atrocities. But our Lord--He's capable of healing them. Resurrection in May is a book that doesn't just make you ask "Why does God let this stuff happen?" It helps you understand how even in the worst of cases, the answer is always, "Because He loves us."

My recommendation? When Resurrection in May hits the shelves this August, get your hands on it. Read it. Be changed. Send me a note thanking me for telling you about it. ;-)